Untitled - Shattering Denial

196
THE INQUISITION
The condemnation of obstinate heretics, and later on,
of the relapsed, permitted no exercise of clemency. How
many heretics were abandoned to the secular arm, and
thus sent to the stake, is impossible to determine. How
ever, we have some interesting statistics of the more im
portant tribunals on this point. The portion of the regis
ter of Bernard de Caux which relates to impenitent her
etics has been lost, but we have the sentences of
the Inquisition of Pamiers (1318-1324), and of Toulouse
(1308-1323.)
In nine Sermones or autos de fe l
of the
tribunal of Pamiers, condemning sixty-four persons, only
five heretics were abandoned to the secular arm. 2
Bernard Gui presided over eighteen autos de fe, and
condemned nine hundred and thirty heretics; and yet
he abandoned only forty-two to the secular arm. 3 These
Inquisitors were far more lenient than Robert the Bougre.
Taking all in all, the Inquisition in its operation denoted
a real progress in the treatment of criminals; for it not
only put an end to the summary vengeance of the mob,
but it diminished considerably
tenced to death. 4
the number of those sen
1 The Sermo generalis after which the sentences were solemnly pronounced
by the Inquisitors was called in Spain auto de fe.
2 Cf. Vidal, op. cit., July, 1905, p. 369.
3 Cf. The sentences of Bernard Gui in Douais, Documents, vol. i, p. ccv,
and Appendix B.
4 Even while the Inquisition was in full operation, the heretics who managed
to escape the ecclesiastical tribunals had no reason to congratulate them
selves. For we read that Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse in 1248, caused